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*** Hello!
I haven't done any "journal" posts lately - just been laying around, moaning about the weather, waiting to do a couple cross-countries. And flying around the neighborhood a couple times a week. So although people usually don't write about it, here's my bit about taking the Written... My CFI had been bugging me to get it out of the way. I had every reason to believe I'd do OK - I'd studied the material well enough to get scores in the mid-eighties on computer-generated simulations a year ago, before ever setting foot in a real airplane. And been reading more about it ever since. I got the impulse to take it on Thursday, but it was too late in the day. Called the testing center, and they wouldn't let me start any later than 1500 - seems they like to go home at 1700. I didn't get nearly enough sleep the night before. This would be understandable if I was staying up cramming, but no... I stayed up 'til 0115 reading a stupid Tom Clancy novel. Sat down to read a bit at 11:00, looked up at the clock and it was 0100 :-(. Then for some idiotic reason, I woke up - like somebody flicked a switch - at 0645. Go figure. I was so tired I almost felt nauseous. It's a pity - it was a beautiful flying day - the first one that week. As you may have heard, it had been raining here in Northern California. Multiple floods, the wettest it's ever been here in human memory. But I'd rather not fly with such little sleep. I did it once or twice before dual, and had a real problem with fixating on some instrument or other, or getting airsick. So I drove right past my little airplane down to the West Valley Flying Club, bellied up to the bar and ordered a test. They have a "CATS" test station there. The attendant phoned the CATS people, had me talk to them on the telephone. They got my name, address, telephone number, social security number, height, weight, and hair color. These last items surprised me, but I suppose they make sense; if you want to pay somebody to take the test for you, they'll have to die their hair, as well as make other more difficult modifications :-). We went through the pretest checklist together - did I have ID? Did I have my endorsement? Meanwhile, the computer in the other room was downloading the test from the CATS center. I went into the test room with
There was almost a glitch with the money. The desk guy asked if I wanted to pay the him or the CATS people? I preferred to pay him - cash. Could he change a hundred? No, he couldn't; it had to be exact change. I dug through my wallet and produced two twenties, three fives, three ones, and eight quarters. Whew. Sat down. He asked me if I had ever taken a computerized test before. No, I hadn't. I didn't mention being a computer programmer. He gave me a sample test, verified that I knew which buttons to push, and let me alone. I remember the first twenty questions being really easy; I answered them as fast as I could punch the keys. Then they got harder. One nice feature of the test software; it lets you "mark" a question so you can come back to it later. I used my normal test strategy:
With only 60 questions, I guess it has to be a bit of a crapshoot as to which areas get covered how well. My particular roll of the dice got me exactly one aeromedical question: "What does the word 'hypoxia' mean?". It got me two "weather report" questions, one a METAR, and the other one a Winds-aloft. There were three questions of the "How long does it take to get from Mercer County to the Minot Vortac with winds 330@20?" type. And they asked the one about load factor in a 60-degree banked turn. I really wished I'd gotten more sleep. Especially when I was doing some of the E6B stuff. On one of those questions, I kept losing track of the NM scale when I looked at the time scale. Finally, I just put a pencil mark on the NM scale :-). The test station had the same problem that computer-oriented desks have everywhere: computer smack dab in the middle of the desk, no place left to spread out the test book. I wound up with the test book in my lap, and the scratch paper laying on the book. I guess cockpit resource management is part of the test. Having completed the test, and rechecked all the answers, I chose "End Test" on the computer screen. After asking me "Are you Sure" at least three times, and making me fill out a stupid survey screen, the computer fizzled and sizzled a little, and told me I'd gotten 93%. All right! I'd missed one question on Arctic Weather ( Damn you, Steam Fog! ). One question on "Other Air Spaces" ( I'd forgotten the code for low-altitude IFR Military Training Routes ), one question on Navigation ( shoulda got more sleep! ), and one question on Aviation Weather Services ( What's the Winds Aloft code for "Light and Variable? )... That's OK. After hearing about some checkrides that people who got 100% were subjected to, I guess it's just as well. - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry@tr2.com ) |